ENGLISH LITERATURE WITH AN ACCENT

Credit Hours: 3 · Undergraduate Lower-Level

This class explores voice and accent in English literature and cultural production, including podcasts, audiobooks, film, and television. Topics include race and voice (e.g. brown voice); the cybernetic voices of virtual assistants like Siri; the call center; and forensic listening. Everyone has an accent, but some are heard as "neutral" and others as markers of difference. This has serious implications: accent discrimination costs jobs, housing applications, and asylum claims. Do literary texts have accents, like people do? Students will gain understanding of the politics of accent and voice, while learning to use their accented voices to produce close, critical readings.